So here’s the 2008 poster:

And here’s Posh Spice Beckham:

Coincidence?

Piccolo Spoleto’s Southern Literary Festival will be at the Charleston Library Society, one of America’s oldest libraries, May 29-31.

Festival speakers and the topics of their talks will be:

• Sue Monk Kidd, author of the bestsellers “The Secret Life of Bees,” “The Mermaid Chair,” etc. “The Secret Life of Bees: Place, ‘Southern-ness’ and Spirituality”

• Jack Hitt, contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Garden & Gun, and Public Radio International’s “This American Life.” “Restoring the Fire Forest: The Hidden History of the South’s Post-War Environmental Holocaust”

• Mary Alice Monroe, author of the bestsellers “The Beach House,” “Skyward,” etc. “A Sense of Place: The Power of Landscape in Southern Literature”

• Margaret Bradham Thornton, editor of Tennessee Williams’ “Notebooks” “Between the Lines: Editing the Notebooks of Tennessee Williams”

• Jeremy Lawrence, veteran actor of stage, screen and television, will give selected readings from Tennessee Williams’ notebooks. Lawrence, who has appeared on stage nationally and internationally, is known for his portrayal of the playwright in “Talking Tennessee.”

• Oliver Bowman and Harriet Rigney, Poetry Society of South Carolina “Poetry and Parties in the Roaring ’20s”

• Nathalie Dupree (cookbook author and television cooking show host), Catherine Forrester (author) and Barbara Hagerty (writer and poet). “From Recipes to Restaurants: A Look at Charleston Then and Now Through Her Cuisine”

• Dr. Richard Porcher, field biologist and co-author of “The Story of Sea Island Cotton” “Carolina Rice and Sea Island Cotton: Ecological Perspectives”

For more bio info on the authors, click here.
All events will take place at the Charleston Library Society, 164 King Street. Tickets for each event are $15, and may be purchased through Ticketmaster at (888) 374-2656 or by going online to www.piccolospoleto.com. The culminating event of the festival will be “A Charleston Literary Soirée,” where festival-goers can join the speakers for champagne and hors d’oeuvres.

The Charleston Library Society was founded in 1748 and chartered by King George II of England. A membership library, over the years it has claimed some of the South’s most famous writers and poets as members.